How To Save A Life
by AGirlHasNoName20
Summary: DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU ARE ALL CAUGHT UP WITH TRIALS OF APOLLO. This fanfic is set during the events of Tyrant's Tomb. Reyna has always put her leadership duties before everything else. Then, the worst news reach her and it's time to say goodbye.


_Hey guys!_

**First of all, if you aren't caught up with the Trials of Apollo, DO NOT CONTINUE READING. This is a fanfic that set during the events of The Tyrant's Tomb.**

_I hope you like this story and cheers for reading!_

_Disclaimer: All rights to the Trialls of Apollo and the Percy Jackson Saga belongs to wonderful Rick Riordan, not me._

_"How to Save a life"_

There are all sorts of bad days in a person's life.

This one in particular, for Reyna, was a day she wanted to forget it ever existed, a day she wanted to block out of her mind and heart in the vain hope it would stop hurting.

Regardless of how much everything had changed, Jason was still one of her closest friends. He had been the first person she had ever trusted and befriended, the first boy she had loved.

Saying goodbye to him was a day she thought she would never have to deal with. She thought she would have gone first.

As a pretor, and as a daughter of Bellona, her people depended on her during hard times, so she had learned to shut her feelings down. The way she saw it, her people always went first, and only after taking care of them could she care to help herself.

So at least, her emotional training made it relatively easy for her to block her feelings out as she strode with a relative calm façade through New Rome's streets towards Jupiter's Temple.

Jason had been their pretor, their leader and their hero. He had saved so many lives during both the Titan War and against Gaea. He deserved a perfect funeral and Reyna would make sure he got it.

It was the least she could do for him.

Reyna took a deep breath and pushed its doors open, sliding silently into the Temple of Jason's father.

The tradition stated that three members of the deceased' Cohort would prepare them for the funeral. None of the Fifth Cohort's older members could bear with preparing their beloved pretor, so three of the newest, who had never met Jason, were silently placing the casket right before the steps leading to the statue of Jupiter on a ceremonial table.

Reyna glanced silently at them from the shadows. It may have been tradition but Jason deserved more than to be lay down to his final rest by people he never fought alongside with and, at the very least, she would be alone to cry and say goodbye.

"I will take over from here" Reyna spoke, her voice slightly hoarse. She carrasped as the people surrounding his casket looked up at her in a startle "You can leave"

The three legionaires nodded silently, leaving Jason's belogings around the casket and headed towards the exit. They bowed his head to Reyna as they passed and soon enough, she and Jason were all alone in the Temple.

She stood still for a moment, gazing at the way the sunlight pouring from the tall windows fell directly on Jason's casket, making it shine. Jupiter looked down on them with the same regal, serious glance he'd always had.

She wanted to believe, wherever the King of the Gods was at the moment, that he was grieving for his son. Jason had been the personification of everything Jupiter, and New Rome, admired. Determination, responsibility, justice. He, as dark as it sounded, deserved to be grieved.

There was not a moment to be wasted, so she squared her shoulders and took a few steps forward, the noise ridiculously loud in the empty, marble temple.

And then, she heard him.

She stopped walking at once "I know you are here. You can come out"

She turned around in time to see a reluctant Apollo come out of the shadows "I wanted to make sure you were okay"

"Why?" Reyna asked, her voice taking a polite tone "You don't know me, My Lord"

She still found it hard to believe this awkward, pimpled teenager was the God of music and archery but still, he was so she would be respectful.

"Don't 'My Lord' me. I don't deserve it. Not in the state I am and after everything that's happened" Apollo replied with a sardonic chuckle "I wanted to offer my services for the ritual. If you and I took charge of this, Jason is bound to get the burial he deserves, wouldn't you agree?"

"He didn't deserve to die" Reyna replied, her voice hard and unwavering "But I agree with the rest of what you've said. Follow me"

And so, god and pretor walked alongside one another towards the casket, Apollo staying a few feet away while Reyna advanced all the way to finally stand beside her friend.

His cloak, medals, and weapons were before the casket, all waiting to be lay on their owner. Reyna slowly grazed her fingers alongside them, swallowing thickly as she felt a knot forming in her chest.

"You can lay his belongings on top of the casket, Pretor. You don't have to open it" she heard Apollo speak from behind and smiled inwardly, thanking the formality her title brought, finding it much more comfortable.

"He was my first friend, you know?" She replied, slowly rounding the table to glance at the rest of Jason's possessions. She smiled at the photos, letters and books that had been placed around the casket "When I arrived at Camp Jupiter, terrified of being in a place I didn't know, with people I didn't trust and without my sister, I didn't know how I would survive. And then, Jason welcomed me. We've been friends ever since"

Reyna glanced shortly at Apollo as she completed her walk around the table "I won't say goodbye to a casket"

She slowly opened the casket and glanced silently at the boy inside it.

Reyna had always heard of how dead people look as if they were in a deep, calming sleep.

She called bullshit on that.

Sure, Jason looked calm and peaceful, but he was uncharateristically pale, unnaturally stiff, undeniably dead.

Reyna gripped his hand for a moment as the first tears rode silently down her cheeks, overwhelmed by the sadness and the unfairness of the situation.

They weren't meant to say goodbye so soon.

"I was so angry at him when he disappeared" Reyna chuckled as he placed his hands on top of his body and grabbed his sword, placing it between them so he looked as if he was gripping it "I knew it wasn't his fault but I felt this irrational rage at being alone again for the first time in four years and I misdirected it at him"

She walked slowly around the casket, placing his favorite belongings around his body, smiling as she remembered their history together "And when he came back, so happy with his new girlfriend, his friends and his new life, more freeing than the one he had here...I still congratulate myself for how calm I was. I really wanted to kill him right then"

"He was crazy not to have waited to be with you" Apollo said and Reyna shook her head in slight amusement.

She stopped for a second and looked at the god with a grin "I don't think he was, Apollo. As much as I loved the prospect back then, we weren't right for eachother. Piper is amazing and he was so happy with her. I still don't understand how he could have broken up with her"

Apollo nodded, smiling slightly "Then why were you mad at him?"

Reyna faltered, her expression pained once more. She looked down at Jason again as she continued to prepare him "I almost lost it during those months without him. I just missed him so much and was so worried something happened to him so when he came back so happy and relaxed, I resented him because it didn't look as if he had missed us at all, you know? That day, I regret to say that I put my walls back up again because I really did think I wasn't as close a friend to him as he was to me"

"He loved you, Reyna" Apollo replied, his voice a whisper, his eyes wide as he noticed how close to a breakdown was the pretor standing in front of her "Things change because that's life but he loved you. You have to know that"

"I know" Reyna whispered, swallowing down a sob as she carefully straightened the whisps of hair on Jason's forehead "And that's what kills me. I wasted so many months being angry at him for choosing a happier life for himself. I resented him, so I distanced myself from him and now, I can't let him know how sorry I am"

"You felt you had to do it, Reyna. I may have not known Jason for very long but I know he knew and loved his friends unconditionally" Apollo walked around the casket and placed a hand awkwardly on Reyna's shoulder as she cried silently, her hands gripping the casket "You have nothing to be sorry for"

It took her a few minutes to regain herself but she finally straightened, her face wet and red with tears but once again full of determination.

She placed two coins on either side of his head before wiping her face with her sleeve and walking around the casket to grab Jason's cloak.

"The final item is the cloak. We have to put it over the closed lid after we say our goodbyes" Reyna spoke, her eyes on anywhere but Apollo as he stood behind her.

He understood at once. She felt uncomfortable breaking down in front of anyone, let alone an idiotic god who was partially responsible for his friend's death.

He of course, was nowhere near apt to handling such an emotional situation so he carrasped nervously as he scratched his neck "I already said my goodbyes back at...um, before. You go ahead and I'll help you with the cloak"

Reyna nodded, closing her eyes for a second as her eyes brimmed with tears once again "Jason, you were a hero and a leader to us all. You saved us over and over again. You gave us your friendship, your counsel and your wisdom. We will love and miss you forever, and we hope you are finally safe in Elysium. See you on the other side, my friend"

Reyna and Apollo walked towards both extremes of the casket. They both looked at Jason for one more second before grabbing both sides of the lid and closing it slowly. Then, they placed his purple cloak on top of the casket.

Silence was defeaning as they stared at the closed lid. Reyna looked horrified, as if she was finally accepting that she would never see her friend again. Apollo, not having a clue on how to help the strong yet heartbroken pretor, waited for her orders.

Finally, Reyna looked at him, looking and sounding completely exhausted "I never thought I would say goodbye to him"

Apollo could only nod, completely remorseful and heartbroken as well.

Reyna closed her eyes and squared her shoulders again, returning into her pretor mode. She finally glanced at Apollo again, her voice detached as it was before "Jason will stay here until the ceremony tomorrow. I need you to look for Hazel and tell her to put her Cohort in patrol duty. This temple must be guarded at all times until the ceremony. I will write to Thalia, just in case I can communicate with her in time"

"Very well" Apollo replied, grimacing as Reyna walked towards the exit without turning back but understanding her all the same.

The time she had for goodbyes had ended and now, she needed to help her people. She was doing everything she could to survive, in order to heal herself when she finally had the time to do so.

And, if he could, Apollo was going to help her with that.


End file.
